I Would Participate in the Beta

Goldenstar over at A Casual Stroll to Mordor asks the question “Would You Join the Beta?” in her weekly poll, and I emphatically answered – YES! I've had great experiences in betas and on playtest servers in the past (StarFleet Command, Eve Online, Battlefield 3, Star Trek Online, The Secret World, WoW:MoP, and many others), and I figure that will continue into the future, but I approach beta play with a few things in mind.

1. I only want to get a feel for the game – I am not going to race to max level and burn through content in some fruitless attempt at being first at anything.
2. I want to try to help the developers – if there is something that I can't make sense out of or any type of glitch, I follow the reporting procedures. There are going to be issues and they may not update everything before the game goes live, but beta feedback is one of the best ways to get the developers to listen to you in a lot of games.
3. I try to be constructive in commenting – no reason to expect developers to change anything if all you do is complain on forums.

With that being said, I have held off on playing some betas – Guild Wars 2 for instance. GW2 has gotten so much hype and press, I am afraid to play the beta and be disappointed – I'd rather wait until most of the problems are ironed out and the game goes live.

Now I believe her question is specific to LOTRO, and in particular the upcoming expansion – Riders of Rohan. LOTRO has been on my radar as a game to try out. From what I've seen, there is a great and vibrant community, and while it may not be a WoW killer (haven't seen one of those yet), I've read many blogs talking about how enjoyable the game is. If offered the opportunity to join the beta for LOTRO, I would say yes, as I would love to check out what people have been talking about. The game has matured over time and since it is already live, I would not fear the disappointment that I feel could hurt my enjoyment of GW2. In any case, I will be giving LOTRO a try in the near future, beta or not.